1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a flavor generation article and instrument employed for enjoying inhalation of a flavor and simulated smoking and, more particularly, to a flavor generation article and instrument used for generating a flavor as an inhalation target by heating a material and not by combustion.
2. Background Art
A simulated smoking instrument employed for enjoying the flavor and smoke of tobacco without burning tobacco is already known, and various types of simulated smoking instruments have been proposed.
Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 3-232481 discloses a typical concept of a conventional simulated smoking instrument. The instrument of this reference uses, e.g., a rod-like solid material. When the solid material is heated by an electric heating element, an inhalation target, e.g., a flavor, is generated.
In the simulated smoking instrument utilizing such an electric heating element, when power is supplied to the electric heating element, the temperature of the electric heating element is increased to heat the solid material, so that a flavor component is emitted. Since the solid material has a high specific heat, it takes time to heat the material to a temperature at which the material can sufficiently emit the flavor component. For this reason, when the smoker tries to perform simulated smoking with this instrument, a sufficient amount of flavor component is not emitted instantaneously.
Furthermore, in a simulated smoking instrument of this type, if a power supply is incorporated in the instrument, the internal structure is complicated to increase the cost, and the instrument is difficult to repair. When using of an external power supply, if the power supply and the smoking instrument are connected to each other with a cord, the locations where the instrument can be used are limited, and the cord is an obstacle. Inversely, if the instrument is formed such that it is separate from the external power supply when used for smoking, the heated state of the material can only be maintained for about one or two inhalation (puffing) operations.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,945,931 discloses a simulated smoking instrument using a pressurized aerosol container. In the instrument of this reference, the puffing operation of the user swings the vanes to mechanically open the outlet port of the container, and the aerosol is emitted.
In the instrument utilizing such a pressurized flavor gas source, it is difficult to adjust the opening/closing valve such that the flavor gas can be emitted continuously. More specifically, if the opening/closing valve is formed to have a simple structure, all of the pressurized flavor gas may undesirably be emitted within two or three uses.